4 TALKS AFIELD. 



bryo or initial plantlet inclosed in an integu- 

 ment. There are other bodies in the lower 

 plants which possess the functions of seeds 

 in reproducing the plant, but which are en- 

 tirely different in their structure. These 

 bodies are the spores of ferns, of mosses, of 

 moulds, and other low plants. They are 

 commonly simple and very minute cells, and 

 they contain no embryo. The dust that flies 

 from a common puff-ball is made up of 

 spores, as represented at Fig. 

 ^ 4. Some spores are made up 

 of two or more cells, as shown 

 in Fig. 5. Spores are usually 

 borne in some kind of a spore-case. 



With an idea of what con- 

 stitutes a spore, a seed, a fruit, 

 ^ A and with a common knowl- 

 ^^JL^ edge of flowers, we are pre- 

 9 pared to understand in a gen- 

 Fig. 5. eral way 



The Leading Subdivisions of the Vegetable 

 Kingdom. 



Botanists commonly recognize two great 

 sub-kingdoms of plants, known as the flower- 

 less and flowering plants, or the cryptogams 

 and phenogams. The flowerless plants are 



